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All those big-money poker tournaments on television have introduced countless people to the excitement of Texas hold'em.

But the dark side of poker's popularity is a rise in gambling addiction, according to Jeff Friedman, a therapist at Cottonwood de Tucson.

Poker is considered a form of action gambling, Friedman says. Games like poker and blackjack require a person to make a lot of decisions, whereas playing the lottery or slot machines is known as escape gambling.

Though both can be dangerous, Friedman said, action gambling can be particularly harmful to some because of the type of person who is drawn to that type of gambling.

"People who choose hold'em are people whose personalities lean toward a need for control and power," Friedman said.

But, he added, gambling addiction remains much less prevalent than drug and alcohol addictions.

Friedman, who plans to present a paper on pathological gambling at a conference in Hong Kong in July, estimates that 1.5 percent to 2.9 percent of the world's population is susceptible to some form of gambling addiction. This compares with about 12 percent who are at risk of alcohol abuse.

The majority of those who develop a problem from playing poker have a predisposition to such an addiction, Friedman said. And to be considered an addiction, he said, the gambling has to impair their function in an important part of life, such as work, family or their mood.

"The potential for addiction is more in the person than the substance," he said. "They don't pick an action-type gambling by accident."